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Certified Professional Installation

Security Camera Installation is backed by a brand trusted by organizations like the United States Department of the Treasury, General Motors and NASA. With an unheard of 3 year warranty and 100% free support that never expires.

We're extremely happy to help you set up your system and troubleshoot any issues. Our support hours are from 9AM-7PM Monday - Friday (EST) and we are available via chat, email, phones, and remote PC screen-sharing. You can reach us at 866-414-2553.

Guide to Identifying or Recognizing a Face: Resolution, Focal length, and Megapixels

If you have ever said "I need to ID a face at ___ distance, what camera should I buy?" then this guide is for you.

This guide covers a person in full daylight who is looking towards the camera and is organized by resolution and lens focal length (more commonly called "zoom"). As you zoom in, your field of view narrows.

Identify vs Recognize vs. Detect

These three terms, although sounding similar, are actually different. So, let's define them before proceeding.

Detection is the most simple term, and refers to being able to detect that a human face is in the picture. Industry standards state that you can tell a face is a face if it is at least 4 px in size.

In the picture to the left, you can detect that a person is in the frame, but you cannot recognize or identify who they are.

Recognizing a face refers to being able to say "I have seen that person before" - even if you don't know or can't place who it is. Industry standards state that you can recognize the face of someone you have seen if it is at least 20 px in size.

In the second picture to the left, you can recognize the person in the frame (You might say "I know I have seen him before, but I don't know where" or "That's the guy from the SCW website!"), but without having the other photos on this site as reference, you couldn't really do anything. As long as you can recognize someone in a picture or video while they are committing a crime, you can press charges, but you will need to have identified them previously.

Identification is the most complicated term and refers to being able to make out identifiable marks with enough certainty to make a claim. Industry standards state that you can tell a face is a face if it is at least 40 px in favorable conditions and 80px in challenging ones (twilight, a rainy day, person not looking at the camera, etc).

In the third picture to the left, you can identify this face and a police sketch artist should be able to draw it.

There's a large number of photos on this page, and to make it easier to find what you need, feel free to click the range you want to ID a face to jump to those specific photos.